Monthly Archives: March 2016

Several walk-ons were
kept from boarding Saturday’s 10:30 ferry from Seattle to Bremerton
Saturday night, and they weren’t happy about it. There’s not
another boat until two hours, 20 minutes later.

This is an oddity, but it happens. Let me again explain why.

The ferry in question, the Hyak, was built to carry up to 2,000
passengers. The Coast Guard limits it, however, to lifesaving
capacity — the number that can be strapped into life vests and fit
on lifeboats. That is 600.

Since help is nearby from the route’s other boat, the Coast
Guard allows ferries to exceed their individual life-saving
capacity. At 10:30 p.m. Saturday, however, the other Bremerton
boat, Cathlamet, had already been put away for the night, dropping
the Hyak’s limit to 600.

About 50 people were left at the dock, Danielle Maloni of
Bremerton wrote on Facebook. She couldn’t be reached for more
information.

The long gap between the 10:30 and 12:50 sailings has long been
a gripe of Bremerton riders. They often leave ballgames and shows
before they’re over because there’s no way they want to wait until
practically 1 in the morning for an hour-long boat ride.

Normally there’s plenty of room on the 10:30 ferry. Washington
State Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling couldn’t put his finger on
what caused the crowd. Maybe the Vancouver Whitecaps at Seattle
Sounders soccer game Or late St. Patrick’s revelers.

“We did strand some people, unfortunately, which is annoying,”
he said. “We’re not certain why there was so much demand for this
ferry. This is extremely rare.”
A similar incident occurred on New Year’s, but WSF was able to add
another sailing. It didn’t have the staff available this time.

Counting passengers has been a hot-button issue for years. The
Coast Guard would like an accurate count on every sailing of every
boat, so the crew knows how many people would need to rescued if
there’s an emergency. Ferry workers count the ferries they expect
to be pushing capacity, and more, depending on the route. It’s
unclear whether it’s legally required, and it’s difficult when
using a clicker to be accurate.

The ferries system is moving forward with the Coast Guard on the
issue, it says. It’s also looking into automated passenger
counting.

Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and County Commissioner Charlotte
Garrido suggested this week during a Kitsap Transit subcommittee
meeting that the Rich Passage 1 make demonstration runs so
residents can experience it before voting on cross-Sound service,
probably in November.

The 118-seat ferry can cross between Bremerton and Seattle in
half an hour without harming Rich Passage beaches. There’s no money
to operate it, however, hence a sales tax increase will likely be
going to voters.

Lent proposed to run the ferry Saturday, May 21, the day of the
big Bremerton parade. Garrido wanted commuters to get a taste of it
on a weekday. The two agreed on May 19-21. Now it’s a matter of
pulling it off.

First, it would have to be approved by the full nine-person
transit board. Not all members are crazy about fast ferries, though
the majority seem to be.

Then the Rich Passage 1 would have to be available. It’s being
stored at Port Townsend Boat Haven and needs a little work before
getting back in the water, said Kitsap Transit service and capital
development director Steffani Lillie. It would need to pass an
annual Coast Guard inspection, which shouldn’t be a problem. A crew
would have to be lined up.

And there’s the matter of paying it — primarily fuel, labor and
insurance. Lent believes she can find a sponsor for the insurance,
which she estimates at $8,000. Finance director Paul Shinners is
examining the cost. Lent said $70,000 generated from fares during a
three-month testing period in 2012 could be spent on demonstration
trips. That money is long gone, however. It offset some of the cost
of providing the 2012 service, said Shinners.

Permission would have to be granted by the Federal Transit
Administration to use the Rich Passage in such a way and it would
determine whether fares could be collected, Lillie said.

Executive director John Clauson, who was out of town and didn’t
attend Tuesday’s meeting, is concerned about Lent and Garrido’s
proposal coming off as a foregone conclusion.

“We’re a long ways from that,” he said. “No. 1, two members do
not make a quorum. That would have to be a full board decision
because it would have to be a budget expenditure. Currently we
don’t have the funds to operate it. The board’s in control of it.
They can do what they want.”

“There’s an awful lot that would go into putting that into
operation, though it’s not something we couldn’t do.”

In January 2015, Lent pushed for the RP1 to provide trips to
Seahawks playoff games. Passengers would’ve paid $25 per round
trip. She requested contributions from five large companies, but
they said they couldn’t act quickly enough.

After a hole and hull corrosion were discovered on the state’s
newest ferry, Samish, its sister Tokitae was put in drydock for a
thorough inspection for similar problems. It went in Friday after
the Samish returned from about two weeks of repairs.

Tokitae, which is at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes,
doesn’t have nearly as much corrosion, said Washington State
Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling, and no holes. There are two places
where less than a square foot of steel must be replaced.

It could return as soon as Friday. In the meantime, the Samish
is running in its place on the Mukilteo-Clinton route.

A final determination of the cause of the corrosion is coming
soon, Sterling said. It is believed to be the reaction between
dissimilar metals.

The Yakima crew, at the Friday Harbor ferry dock Tuesday,
smelled smoke. And you know what that means. Where there’s smoke,
there’s fire. But where’s where?

The ship was in the slip, pushing the dock, as they say. That
describes how the propeller keeps running slowly after the boat is
tied up to help keep it in place. Then it lost power, Shaun
Bukovnik, the assistant engineer, described in a phone
interview.

The captain called down from the bridge to report that smoke was
coming out of engine room vents, onto the car deck. The engine room
crew checked their quarters, smelled the smoke but found no flames.
They quickly assembled a fire team, turned off the ventilation,
started the fire pump and asked the Friday Harbor Fire Department
to stand by at the dock.

“Any fire is a dangerous situation because minutes matter and
seconds matter,” said Bukovnik, of Arlington. “We were on our way
to check the engine room again. We looked in the engine operating
station shop, our workshop, and there was smoke coming out of the
motor exciter electrical cabinet”

They opened the breakers to de-energize it and blasted the fire
with CO2 extinguishers. It was out in seconds, but they kept
spraying to cool off the wires.

“This is a small electrical fire that was hiding from us because
it was in a contained cabinet, but we found it, we attacked it and
we won,” said the 36-year-old Bukovnik. The fire only hurt about
one quarter of the cabinet. We were able to find it in time and
save a lot of damage.”

An investigation is looking into the cause of the fire. The
ferry will be out of commission indefinitely. The Kaleetan was
moved from Bremerton to the San Juans to replace it. The Spokane,
which had been at the Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility, was
assigned to Bremerton. The Yakima was towed to Eagle Harbor.

Bukovnik credited crew training and communication between the
deck and engine room staffs for limiting the damage.

“I first want to thank God for the safety of the crew and
helping us remember our training,” he said. “If it weren’t for the
brave men and women of the crew, this could have been a lot
worse.”

Washington State Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling said all crew
members go to fire school.

“We are really proud of our crew who leapt into action and did
exactly what they’re trained to do,” he said. “They were able to
extinguish the fire in a matter of minutes and keep it from
spreading beyond the electrical panel.”

Washington State Ferries is teaming up Thursday with Seattle
Humane for the first-ever pet adoption day.

Seattle Humane’s mobile adoption vehicle will be on board the
11:10 a.m. sailing from Seattle to Bremerton and the 1:45 p.m.
return trip. From about 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., it’ll be in the
Bremerton ferry parking lot.